COVID19: Deaths increase to 16, cases falling

Cyprus reported 16 deaths, up from 12, in its weekly Covid bulletin on Friday, as new cases and hospitalisations visibly dropped from previous levels.

The Health Ministry said the latest victims of the pandemic were eight men aged 63 to 78 and eight women between 70 and 100.

It raises the July death toll to 39 and the to-date figure since March 2010 to 1,115.

The June death toll was limited to six, and for May, it was 23, while April’s figure was 75, just ahead of 67 in March.

January remains the deadliest month on record with 101 deaths, followed by 96 in February, overtaking the previous record of 85 last August.

Some 409, or 37% of all deaths in Cyprus, occurred in the first seven months of this year.

Hospitalisations dropped from 104 to 76, and critical cases fell by four to 7, with three intubated patients, one less from last week.

Three patients are still considered post-Covid, two more from the week before, having recovered from the virus but remaining intubated and in a serious state.

The total of all coronavirus infections since the pandemic started rose to 562,911.

The past week saw 6,863 new cases, about 3,400 less than the previous report, with the average daily dropping from 1,450 to 980.

Testing declined with 95,172 PCR and rapid antigen tests conducted during the past week, 15,900 fewer than the week before.

This helped lower the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ to 7.21% from last week’s 9.14%, after spiking to a year-high of 13.42%, seven times above the safe limit of 1%.

Some attribute the fall in cases to the reintroduction of mask-wearing indoors.